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Behrami: Watford can challenge Premier League elite

Watford may no longer be an unknown quantity in the Premier League but Valon Behrami believes they can continue to mix it with the best the division has to offer.

The Hornets welcome title challengers Manchester City to Vicarage Road on Saturday as they aim to make 2016 another memorable year.

Quique Sanchez Flores’ side sit ninth in the table, just two points behind fifth-placed Crystal Palace. It would have been better had they not slipped to defeat by a late goal to Tottenham on Monday.

Behrami has had to settle for a place on the bench in recent weeks and the Switzerland international knows he has a fight to get back into a side who are catching the eye.

“It is more difficult because now the teams start to know us, they start to see that we have a great team,” he told Hornets Player.

“But we are working hard to improve every day and to make sure we don’t make any mistakes.

“We are in a good situation, the team is performing very well, and we are going to try and keep going like this.”

Nathan Ake was sent off against Tottenham and will be suspended for the visit of City – who have not won away from home in the Premier League since September.

Behrami reckons Watford have now proven they can go toe to toe with the likes of Manuel Pellegrini’s side.

“We know that at home we have the quality to get a good result, and if we keep working like this we can be more lucky than we were in our last game (against Spurs),” he added.

“We’ve just played against two great teams but you could see no difference.

“Chelsea was a really good game and we took a risk with the penalty, but luckily they didn’t score, and against Tottenham we made a great effort with 10 against 11, but in the end it was unlucky what happened.”